Depending on which way you look at it, today’s house price data from Halifax is either good or bad news.
Taken one way it paints a gloomy picture, with house price growth continuing to slow. According to the lender, in the year to May house price inflation dropped to 3.3 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent in the year to April.
However, a different interpretation is more positive. The statistics also reveal that UK house prices increased for the first time in five months in May, thanks to historically low mortgage rates and a shortage of available properties. Halifax says that the average house price rose by 0.4 per cent last month to £220,706, the first monthly rise in house prices since the beginning of 2017. But…prices in the three months to May were 0.2 per cent lower than in the preceding quarter.
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